We're back

Back, that is, poorer but happier, from 5 days in Paris, 3 in Venice, 6 in Fiesole (a suburb of Florence), 7 in Umbria, and 7 in Rome. Add in a day to get to Paris at the beginning and a day (a very, very long day) to get back home from Rome at the end, and you'll see we were gone 30 days. We had a good time, but we agreed that a 30-day vacation eventually starts to feel like an endurance test.

What's that you say? You'd like some highlights of the trip? You got it. Not a complete list, mind you (my notes are upstairs), but off the top of my head.

Paris:

• The Louvre (we went for 2 hours and wound up spending the whole day)
• Notre Dame (Fabulous -- and they built this thing with hammers and chisels!)
• Eiffel Tower (a big surprise; we almost didn't even bother going)
• Crepes (who knew they were so good? And so versatile?)

Venice:

• The Doge's palace (each room grander than the one before -- the Bridge of Sighs didn't do anything for me, though)
  
• The Rialto market (what's that they're doing to the artichokes?)
• The view of the canal from the Rialto Bridge -- and the view of the city from the canal

Fiesole/Florence:

• Palazzo Vecchio (walking the same floor, touching the same banister, as Lorenzo the Magnificent)
• The exterior of the cathedral
• Donatello's Mary Magdalene (click that link: excellent pictures of a fabulous sculpture)
• Fillipo Lippi and Sandro Botticelli in the Uffizi (Lippi pictures of the Madonna are wonderful; Botticelli's faces are, in a word, lovely, and in three more words, a complete surprise)
  
• The Etruscan wall in Fiesole (I touched the same wall that some guy built -- who knows how? -- 2500 years ago)
• Driving the one-lane, twisty, windy, mountain top road from Settignano to Fiesole (Mary Ellen had her hands over her eyes.)
• Tasting chianti in Chianti
  

Umbria:

• Assisi (the highlight of highlights: a lovely town, a lovely cathedral, yes, but we saw lots of those. What sets Assisi apart is its basilica, which has the very robe Francis wore, and the very rule that Francis wrote for his new order, and it has . . . the coffin containing Francis's own body! Be still, skeptics: I choose to believe.)
• Siena is a lovely old town with a lovely old cathedral.
• Lots of medieval towns on the top of mountains.

Rome:

• A lovely, big apartment (All our other accommodations combined would fit into our bedroom closet at home)
• Returning the rental car 5 minutes before the office closed (Agent: "Where's the car?" Dan: "Outside the main entrance, double-parked, blocking 3 other parked cars." Agent, with no trace of irony: "Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.")
• Standing on our balcony, sipping a glass of wine, and watching the crazy traffic on the busy street below.
• Tiberina's church of St. Bartholomew (Tiberina? A tiny island in the Tiber, reachable by a 2000 year old foot-bridge. The church? Six shrines to "the new martyrs," including relics of Franz Jägerstätter and Oscar Romero.)
• Pasta alla carbonara (I'd had some at home shortly before the trip and was terribly disappointed. The Roman version was fantastic.)

Everywhere:

• Ham and cheese sandwiches (jambon et fromage in Paris, prosciuto e formaggio in Italy)
• Red wine
  
• Speaking Italian -- the pidgin Italian of a developmentally challenged three year old, to be sure, but Italian nonetheless.
• Grappa

More to follow.